The Effect of Self-assessment on Iranian EFL Learners` Reading Comprehension Skill

1. IntroductionBy the advent of the theories of learner autonomy, self -assessment received much more attention in language teaching and testing and it is playing an important role in language teaching. Language testing has witnessed a dramatic shift of attention and orientation. This significant change has been referred to as a 'paradigm shift' (Gipps, 1994). According to Gipps (1994), a paradigm shift towards integrating ass essment resulted in continuous assessment which includes recording the learners` regular work and their achievement, portfolios, practical tasks and self-assessment through using feedback which encourage learners to take responsibility for their own learni ng rather than formal examinations or standardized test. As a result of attempts to overcome the limitations of teacher assessments and traditional assessments, alternative assessment, such as self -assessments, has been the focus of increasing interest in the field of education (Hargreaves, Earl, & Schmidt, 2001). Self -assessment can be defined as procedures by which the learners themselves evaluate their skills and (Bailey, 1998, p. 227). It is a main learning strategy for autonomous language learning, enabling learners to monitor their progress and relate learning to their individual needs (Harris, 1997). It is considered as useful information about students` expectations, needs, their problems and worries, how they feel about their own learn ing process, their reactions to the materials and methods being used, what they think about the course in general (Harris and Mccann, 1994, p.36).According to Oscarson (1997) self-assessment of language proficiency is the awareness of knowing how and un der what circumstances second language learners or foreign language learners evaluate their own ability in the language. To learn efficiently, learners need to know about their own learning, their abilities and the progress that they are making and what they can or cannot do about what they have learned (Harris,1997). The primary benefit of self-assessment is that it encourages learners to become more actively involved in the educational process by requiring them to reflect on their own performances and by encouraging them to take greater responsibility for setting goals and making decisions about their own learning (Hughes, & Mylonas, 2002). Kavaliauskiene (2004) mentioned that by using self-assessment, learners can think about their own progress and find ways to change and improve it. Moreover, it is a way to convince learners to focus on their own learning to accept the responsibility for it and to better understand the process of learning (McDonald and Boud, 2003). Furthermore, Dodd (1995) states that learners who feel ownership for the class or task and believe they can make a difference, become more involved in their own learning process and finally their self-efficacy can be increased.Chen(2008) argued that teachers should help learners construct their own knowledge by involving them actively in evaluating their own performance in learning and this can help them to gain ownership of their learning and life - long learning skills. The effect of self -assessment on different learning skills specially writing has been examined but it seems there is few numbers of studies which examine the effect of self-assessment on reading comprehension skill. The findings of studies on reading strategies demonstrated that learners who are instructed and skilled in metacognetive self-assessment and became aware of their abilities are more strategic and they perform better than those learners who are not instructed or skilled in self -assessment (Mokhtari &Sheorey, 2002). Baniabdelrahman(2010) examined the effect of self -assessment on EFL learners` reading comprehension. The findings of his study revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental group who used self-assessment rating-scale sheet including reading strategies before, during and after reading, compared to the mean scores of the control group who didn't receive self -assessment rating-scale sheet. …

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